


Through the eyes of others

by TrueLove99



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24055555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueLove99/pseuds/TrueLove99
Summary: A recount of how Goku and Chichi's relationship is seen by their friends and relatives.
Relationships: Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	Through the eyes of others

**Author's Note:**

> This would be my entry for the 2020 GoChi Day, but it does not actually follow any prompt. Please note that English is not my first language.  
> NB: The Trunks mentioned in this story is the one from the future, while every other character present in it comes from the main timeline.

According to most of their friends, Goku and Chichi were as far away from the ideal standard of a romantic couple as one could possibly be. They never did all the things normal couples did, like holding hands and kissing constantly. When they were alone with their friends, they rarely spoke about their romance unless prompted, and even then, they tended to be uncharacteristically reserved. Their relationship started unlike any other they’d know of, with them deciding to get married before they properly fell in love with each other. A fact, this, that led some of these friends to think that theirs was actually a loveless marriage only held up for the sake of their children. After all, it was easy to theorize the most different scenarios for their life as a couple, since not even their closest friends had a real insight on it.

Bulma used to be amongst such friends: ever since Goku and Chichi’s outlandish engagement on the ring of the XXIII World Martial Arts Tournament, she was sure there could be no love in their relationship. First, because said engagement happened with them barely knowing each other, which obviously meant that they weren’t destined to last long. Second, because she knew just how uninterested Goku was in both romance and sex: in her eyes, it was clear that the interest was all on Chichi’s part, and that she would dump him once she found how unreciprocated she was. Admittedly, she also felt jealous of how quickly Chichi had managed to get the guy, a guy whom she herself had been fancying ever since she had first seen him as a grown-up. She just couldn’t fathom how someone as plain as Chichi could conquer the hottest man she had ever met, while she, Bulma Brief, existed and would’ve gladly jumped on him at the first sign of accomplishment. She knew it was no use to try, though: Goku was so detached from sexuality that he would’ve surely turned anyone down. And with that thought in mind, she convinced herself that he would do the same as soon as Chichi asked him anything of that sort.  
She was wrong, though: five years after the World Tournament, she was faced with the fact that the couple had had a son, and that he had been conceived very shortly after their wedding, too. And there was really no point in contemplating the possibility of a secret paternity, since Gohan sported a monkey tail in plain sight just like his dad used to during his childhood. Bulma, in the meantime, was stuck with an on-and-off boyfriend with whom she did nothing but fight, have sex and fight again, the heartthrobs of their first teenage years together long gone, while Yamcha longed to establish their relationship with a formal arrangement and Bulma opposed vehemently. But surely Goku and Chichi’s relationship could not be any better than the one she had with Yamcha; after all, it was clear to her that they wouldn’t last long before Goku did something like abandoning his family to go train with someone very strong, as per the usual. He had abandoned his friends for training in the past, and recently he did the same for different reasons: he stayed alone with his wife and child without ever contacting his closest friends for five long years, and who knows how much longer this could’ve gone on if Bulma hadn’t decided to call him when she couldn’t bear it any more! It was clear the man was prone to leaving the people who cared about him.  
The passage of time, though, did nothing to prove her right, and now she was forced to accept the fact that Goku and Chichi could actually love each other… in their own very weird way, granted. She still couldn’t understand why they never kissed when there were others around them, for example; but, after all the time of joy and pain they had spent together, the sheer devotion they felt for each other was clear to her eyes. Maybe she had to accept the truth because of just how long they stayed together, or because she witnessed some of the sacrifices they had to pull off for their family’s well-being; or maybe she was just more comprehensive of atypical relationships, given how strange her own was. It couldn’t really be said that it was standard procedure for a couple to have casual sex (which involved cheating on another part, none the less) resulting in an unprogrammed pregnancy and then proceed not to talk to or see each other for years before they started dating. But now that she was happy just the way things were with Vegeta, she could get how less conventional forms of love could exist… though she still thought it was a waste that she didn’t get to win the hotter of the two men.

Crilin, too, used to struggle to understand how his best friend’s romance worked. But then, neither did he understand why Bulma and Yamcha kept on getting together again when it was clear to him how incompatible they were, so maybe he was just bad at understanding love in general. In truth, he felt quite jealous when Goku found himself engaged to the prettiest girl Crilin had ever seen, and without him doing anything for it. Then he felt jealous again, but in the opposite way: during their five years apart, he envied the way Chichi seemed to monopolize Goku’s time, while he was left there, longing to hear of him even for a moment. In hindsight, no matter how much it hurt him, he had to accept the fact that Goku was just so happy with his newfound family that he didn’t feel the urgent need for some time with his old friends; Crilin thought he could kind of understand him, now that he, too, had crowned his dream of spending his days in company of a loving family… though he wasn’t definitely so untactful towards his friends as Goku had been.  
But then, he had been faulty of tactlessness in other instances, and he still had himself to blame for a mistake that could’ve easily resulted in the end of his best friend’s marriage. He knew he’d never forgive himself for how badly he treated Chichi when it came to inform her that her husband had died and her son had been kidnapped; that time, he messed up so much that his incapability to explain himself properly led to Chichi believing that Goku had willingly left their kid in the hands of a murderous demon, which was as far from the truth as it could be. In truth, as fascinated as he was with Chichi’s fiery spirit, Crilin was also terribly scared of her proneness to outbursts of anger, which resulted in that incredible fail at communication on his part. He knew that carrying a belief like that could mean the sure end of a relationship, but apparently Goku and Chichi’s was stronger than even that; and stronger than discovering that, say, one half of the couple was part of a nearly extinct race of genocidal aliens. It was really a testament to the strength of their love that they managed to move on from such terrible episodes and rekindle the flame that kept them together every time. Crilin was even more certain of it now, after the couple’s second wedding cemented the fact that not even seven years spent apart could separate his two friends. And this time, he finally got to be Goku’s best man! He was really happy to see the two of them so joyful, even if, after all those years, he still couldn’t understand how Goku, of all people, could get a girlfriend so many years before he did.

In the past, Yamcha was sure that his friend had been lured into an arranged marriage he didn’t desire, and that he only obliged to it because he had given his word as a kid without knowing what he was consenting to. It was an incredible joke of destiny that his new fiancée was the very girl whom Yamcha had claimed to love in an attempt to save his own life. It was even more incredible that said girl still remembered the accident, but the last thing he expected was that, at her age, she still believed he was being honest during that “confession”. She even seemed genuinely concerned for his feelings when she told him that she could not accept his proposal! It was clear to him that such a crazy girl hadn’t got the faintest idea of what love was, and it was Goku whom she was marrying, possibly the only person who knew about it even less than she did. Which was why he was sure that their marriage wouldn’t last long.  
Not only was he proven wrong, though, but he also witnessed first-hand the real extent of Chichi’s love for her husband during the short but intense timespan when he was fighting against the heart virus: while he was a guest in their house, Yamcha got to see despair, hope, joy, gratitude, doubt and fear cross Chichi’s face, and the loving way she tended to Goku was enough to clear his mind of any perplexity he had about the couple. But he still had to tell Chichi that his confession wasn’t honest, sooner or later. And, more importantly, he was determined to make his biggest dream come true and live the rest of his life with a content family, just the way his old friend had managed to: he thought he’d live such a future with Bulma, but in the end she chose someone else over him. In spite of how absurd it could sound, though, Yamcha hadn’t still lost the hope of retrieving the affection of the only woman he had ever loved.

The Turtle Genie was totally uninterested in lovey-dovey stuff, thank you very much. He saw Chichi in the exact way he saw any other woman: as a piece of meat existing for him to try to harass. Unluckily, the only time he tried to, he got a frying pan straight on the face before he could touch anything, which made him realize that he had to be wary of Chichi’s strength as well as of Goku’s when molesting her. After all, he seemed to remember that she had already given him a test of her prodigious strength when she was just a kid, even though he was still convinced that, if she managed to wound him with her helmet blade, it was only because he was unprepared.  
For all of his lack of interest in love, though, he knew he was the only one of Goku’s close circle of friends to have witnessed the unimaginable: him kissing his wife in front of his very eyes! Granted, that was a moment of particular emotional charge, for the couple otherwise tended not to externate their bond before others. In light of this, the Turtle Genie considered himself exceptionally lucky for seeing such an unusual happening. Could that mean that Goku and Chichi deeply loved each other? Whatever, he didn’t really care. He just wished he could’ve seen a bit more of that scene.

Ox Satan had never had any doubt that Goku was the perfect partner for his daughter. Okay, maybe he rushed in a little bit when he proposed him an arranged marriage before he had even asked her opinion, but luckily nothing came out of it so soon. His little Chichi had always desired to have a happy family and be a perfect mother who was strong enough to protect her children. Sadly, such a desire was born as a reaction against her own mother’s physical weakness, which caused her to succumb to an illness when her daughter was only a toddler. Ox Satan was as sure as he could be that his wife would’ve been a perfect mother, but alas, she didn’t get the chance to, before she had to leave this world; now he was sure that his daughter was the most perfect mother there had ever been.  
He deeply admired and respected Goku, and knew how he loved his wife and sons. He was also perfectly aware of how much Chichi reciprocated his feelings, given that he was used to be his daughter’s only confidant. And he wouldn’t have it any other way, of course! Were he to find out his precious Chichi was stuck in an unhappy relationship, he would’ve done anything in his power to convince her to end it. But that was absolutely not the case: he was glad of the choice she had made, even though he didn’t expect her to run away from home and compete in a global tournament of martial arts in order to get her man. But that was his little girl for them, after all!

Piccolo didn’t understand the feeling of love, nor did he harbour any interest in getting it. He surely did not love the family that took him in as a guest so often – he had just grown accustomed to their company, end of story. When Gohan went to him and started talking about how awesome Videl was, he would only grunt here and there to show that he was listening. It wasn’t any different for Goku and Chichi’s relationship: love was a concept that animal species with sexual means of reproduction had developed to form long-lasting bonds in order to assure better chances of survival for the children. There was nothing more to that. And in truth, it kind of unnerved him just how often Goku and Chichi had sex, especially since his very developed sense of hearing forced him to spend most nights in the middle of the forest in order to avoid hearing the couple going at it. Not to mention the countless times he had to suddenly take Gohan and Goten away from their house to train because their parents had had the brilliant idea of having a session in the middle of the day. Love was just a hassle, Piccolo was deadly sure of it.

Trunks had always known that the Chichi he knew from his present loved her deceased husband to death. Though he didn’t know much about romantic love, it was clear to him that their bond was deeper than the one shared by his parents, since Bulma knew so little of the man she had slept with once to never see again. It was so painful to hear Chichi talk about the great times they had before Goku succumbed to the heart virus; the same could be said of Gohan’s frequent recounts of how happy life was before the appearance of the cyborgs, tales that helped Trunks understand just how much the members of the Son family loved each other both in life and in death. And now that Gohan was dead, too, Chichi had bestowed all hope of retrieving what she had lost in his, Trunks’, hands. He had failed, because apparently time travel worked in a very different way from how he expected it to: while he was able to save one Goku, it wasn’t the Goku the Chichi he knew needed. However, she did not seem to blame him for his failure in the slightest and, despite having lost her most loved ones forever, she kept on living with strong willpower, but still showing clear signs of her grief. Trunks really admired her bravery and often mused about how much her strong spirit remembered him of his own mother, in spite of how fundamentally different the two of them were in most regards.  
Meeting his mentor’s mother in the past was quite a shock for him: he was so used to see her scarred by the pain of mourning that he couldn’t have imagined a Chichi so excited, so full of hope and gratitude as the one whom she first saw after Goku had recovered from the heart virus. Though he didn’t really think he deserved so much praise, Chichi made sure to thank Trunks profusely for allowing her beloved to live on. It was a strange sensation to see her, full of tears in her eyes, express her joy: it was obviously sweet because he could feel the sheer extent of her happiness and gratitude, but it was also difficult to watch, since the thought of the griefing Chichi he would undoubtedly meet again in his timeline haunted him at the same time. Still, it was clear to him that doing something so mundane like giving Goku a simple medicine had had incredibly positive outcomes for everyone he loved, not to mention the whole world, and that knowledge warmed his heart for all the years of hardship he would face again in the future.

Vegeta had always thought that love was useless. He didn’t love his late parents, nor did they love him or each other; he didn’t love his comrades, on the contrary, he didn’t hesitate to kill his closest ally once he proved himself worthless for his goals. He sure as hell didn’t love the woman he lived with or the son they had together! He was just sticking with them for the sake of bringing up a powerful descendance of half-bred Sayans. He surely did not change into a better person thanks to the influx of earthlings or other far-fetched reasons! He was surely the same ruthless warrior he had always been, and he’d prove it to those softies sooner or later.  
That Kakarot scum apparently didn’t share his world-view, which was more than enough to prove he wasn’t worthy of being called a true Sayan. Still, he had managed to find himself an exceptionally strong mate for human standards, a fact that Vegeta appreciated for the result it created, that was, the birth of two hybrids whose strength far surpassed that of normal Sayan kids. But then, it wasn’t like it was Kaharot who had a good taste in partners: it was more that, being a Sayan, he was wired to be attracted to people with that kind of fiery character, so there wasn’t really anything to admire him for. Except maybe for the fact that he had chosen the best cook in the world as his wife, as Vegeta was often reminded when Bulma forced him to attend some of those pesky friend reunions. Still, he was adamant that he didn’t envy Chichi in the slightest: contrarily to what most may say, he was absolutely not attracted to Kakarot in the minimum! Why would anyone even dare to insinuate that? Sure, he may be good-looking, but his stupidity was more than enough to turn him off. No, those people clearly misunderstood the real extents of a rivalry: Vegeta wanted to prove his absolute superiority over Kakarot, utterly defeat him and dominate him, a desire that obviously concerned both fighting and sex. But that didn’t mean that he loved him or anything, of course! That’s just how obsessive rivalries work, right? Anyway, love him or not, there would never be any point in trying to court that twerp, since he was so taken with his partner that he couldn’t see anyone else in a romantic light, and would’ve thus rejected them. And Vegeta was quite content with his current situation with Bulma, to boot. But Kakarot really needed to understand that he overvalued the importance of love.

C-18 only remembered the last few years of her life, but one thing she knew for sure was that she had never loved anyone save for her twin brother. The pain they suffered at the hands of Doctor Gelo made them lose any sort of warm feeling they harboured towards the rest of humanity; not helping was the fact that everyone else seemed to treat them as mere objects, refusing to understand that they used to be normal humans like everyone else before they were kidnapped by a mad scientist, and that they were still full-fledged human beings, just with some artificial enhancements here and there. Everything changed for her when she met a man who openly refused to treat her like a heartless robot, and though she didn’t love talking too much about it, her life was utterly revolutionized by this fact. For the better, of course: she was now involved in a happy marriage with an amazing daughter, and her brother, as well, had managed to find love and a place for himself in the world.  
C-18 was often amused by how much her relationship with Crilin resembled the one her friend Chichi had with her husband: what mainly set them apart from most other couples was that they were not overly affectionate in public, but everything changed when they were alone with their close family. As such, C-18 and Chichi rarely felt the need to talk about their love lives when they were together with their friends, a thing that Bulma still had some difficulties wrapping her head around. The two of them would sometimes smile at the other woman’s obliviousness, conscious of the fact that words weren’t needed to show others how amazing their respective marriages were.

More often than not, Videl was dumbfounded by the Son family. She had initially believed that Gohan’s father was dead, then that he was a deadbeat parent who had abandoned his family, and now she was trying to understand how he could’ve been dead one moment and alive the next. But, ever since she met Gohan, her life was populated by the most bizarre happenings, so she figured she should just roll with all the craziness like everyone else seemed to do.  
Her first impression of Chichi, too, wasn’t one of the best: she found her to be way too protective of her older son considering his age, not to mention how hostile she was to her because she somehow thought that participating in global tournaments of martial arts was a sort of ritual for couples to get engaged. Really, that was everything she needed to know in order to understand how weird Goku and Chichi’s relationship was. Except that, once Goku had come back to life, she witnessed how said weirdness was actually more of a positive trait for them. Now that she had seen just how in love they were with each other, in spite of everything up until then making her think the contrary, she had to admit she was a bit envious of the happy family environment Gohan got to grow up in. She surely hoped her own father could settle down like Gohan’s instead of jumping from one bed to the next after his wife’s death… Or maybe, who knows, she herself could develop a similarly loving dynamic with her newfound boyfriend. Anyway, she was sure she and Gohan wouldn’t make such a crazy couple as Goku and Chichi: truth to be told, she found herself amazed by how many times Gohan and Goten appeared before her house in the evening to ask for hospitality because their parents had started making love too loudly. It was surely an absurd thing, but maybe it was also a positive that they stayed so passionate after all those years together: thinking of that, Videl couldn’t help but hope that a similar future was in store for her.

Gohan was quite probably the one who had the deepest insight on his parents’ bond that an external person could have got. And it couldn’t be any other way, since his presence had graced their lives not even a single year after they had got together. He knew most outsiders would think that his parents weren’t a particularly loving couple, but he couldn’t care less: he knew that wasn’t the case, they knew, so no one of them felt any need to prove others wrong. He knew that Goku wasn’t forced to put up with Chichi’s temper, abut that, on the contrary, he was drawn to this very characteristic of hers, which was also a proof of her deep concern for her family. He knew that, more than affectionate gestures, it’s the extent of one’s sacrifice that proves how strong love is, and he was well aware of how much his parents had done to show it. They even had the strength to go on through three major crisis in the history of their relationship, maybe faltering on the way, but without ever loving the other any less. It was clear now more than ever, now that Chichi had accepted Goku in her life for a second time after seven long years during which she could’ve easily changed her mind, and with nothing to blame her in the case. But their love was evidently stronger than death itself, as Gohan was happy to witness several times.  
But then, it wasn’t like the more traditional gestures of affection were lacking in the couple’s life, it was just that his mother was a little shy in that regard, which was why they almost only kissed inside their house. Gohan thought they could sometimes be even a little too affectionate with each other when in private, and thus had accepted it as his personal mission to protect his little brother’s innocence, lest he find himself witness to embarrassing scenes the way he had to in the past. Luckily enough, both Bulma and Mr. Satan were so rich they owned houses so big that they never objected when the two boys hastily asked hospitality for the night… though Gohan would’ve gladly done without all the embarrassment that explaining the situation to Videl caused him.

Goten was simply ecstatic that the mythical figure of his father had just entered his life to stay there forever. Okay, maybe he was sometimes a tiny bit jealous of the fact that he now had to share mummy with someone else, but it was well worth it since he now got to spend time with daddy, too! He didn’t understand why they kissed each other differently than how they kissed him or anyone else, or why they sometimes stayed still gazing at each other’s eyes for several minutes. Grown-ups were surely strange! More than anything, he didn’t understand why, ever since daddy had returned home, Gohan or Piccolo would randomly take him away from home to play with them, but it was nothing he could complain about.  
He had first idolized the invincible concept of his deceased father, then he was left sorely disillusioned by his failure to protect mummy, but in the end it seemed like he managed to save the whole world, so Goten reached the conclusion that he could allow this newfound daddy of his to stay with mummy. After all, it looked like he had done enough to deserve her love. As well as his, of course. Now he just hoped that Gohan and Videl, too, wouldn’t start acting all lovey-dovey around each other, what with all the times they stared at each other charmed like his parents did.

Goku and Chichi may not be an example of what most would define a classic romantic couple, but both of them, as well as all those who knew them closely enough, were well aware that they’d rather express their love for each other in more atypical ways. And if the mere fact that their bond managed to stand strong even after all the incredible difficulties they had faced didn’t prove that they loved each other more deeply than how an external observer would assume, then nothing could.


End file.
